A diamond in the rough

TV REVIEW:'IT'S LIKE SOME sort of low-rent James Bond movie. I don't know what the hell is going on," Liam Cunningham said in Hostile Environments(RTÉ1, Monday), and maybe that's the way it looked to him, as he stood by an old Hiace on a dusty road in Monrovia surrounded by shady characters, but to me it looked horribly dangerous and genuinely unpredictable in a way that's rare in a programme presented by a proper star.

In the first of an excellent and edgy two-part documentary looking at the burgeoning international private-security industry, where former Irish military are leading figures, the Dublin actor was in the notoriously lawless Liberian capital to get an insight into the work of Paul Butler, an Irish Army ranger turned successful private-security operative.

The former EastEndersactor Ross Kemp does the same sort of thing in his hit TV series, but there's no real comparison between the two programmes, because where Ross is macho and full on, Cunningham's approach was quiet and questioning, looking behind the Action Man stuff without feeling the need to dress like a pretend commando.

He’s an easy, relaxed interviewer, first meeting Butler in Cannes, where he runs one of the most successful security firms on the Riviera, typically guarding visiting Hollywood celebrities or Russian millionaires holidaying in their mansions. That’s the blingy €10,000 a weekend of the work.

In Liberia, Butler’s mission was to source quality diamonds in a dangerous country that exports all its wealth while its citizens starve – or, as Cunningham observed, “the contrast between the poverty and the wealth beneath their feet” is so extreme and so obvious.

Not that this bothered Butler, who had a job to do and who gave the crew the slip when the real wheeling and dealing was going on.

“I’m waiting to see what the grown-ups are talking about,” said Cunningham, resigned to being excluded, though we saw enough of what was going on to feel deeply uncomfortable with it.

Cunningham talked to a diamond miner who showed him a half-carat stone that cost €150. The actor recalled buying a ring with a smaller stone for 10 times that, remarking that now it didn’t seem such a romantic gesture after all.

WHERE WERE THE children in 21st Century Child?This ambitious series (RTÉ1, Tuesday), presented by the psychologist David Coleman, aims to follow a group of children born in 2007-8 until their sixth birthday, but this first programme was all about the mammies, who, with two or three exceptions, came across as a moany, joyless bunch, as if motherhood were to be endured rather than enjoyed. "If you want to be a career woman, don't have kids," said mother of two Dee, sounding like an agony aunt from Planet Housewife circa 1950. Coleman's downbeat voiceover didn't lift the sense of gloom.

The participants were honest about their feelings, though, as well as their personal situations, which in some cases were difficult, particularly for a young mother in Carlow who suffers from depression. But what I wanted to see was what was promised in the title: the children, who are now preschoolers.

But maybe that's because it's hard to look at a programme like this and not compare it with Robert Winston's brilliant Child of Our Time, for the BBC, which followed a group of millennium babies and managed to make the children's development the focus while giving a full picture of their home lives.

HORRIBLY MEAN, ISN'T IT? – maybe even a bit rude – making nervous young singers perform to the backs of chairs, as they do in The Voice of Ireland. But then mean, rude and clever are what you'd expect in a reality-TV format devised by John de Mol, the man who came up with Big Brother.

The blind audition, after which the contestants choose their favourite judge (like in Dragons' Den) is what makes The Voicedifferent – but really it's just The X Factorwith revolving chairs. And surely before the judges (or coaches, as they're called) – Brian Kennedy, Sharon Corr, Kian Egan and Niall Breslin – make their choice to push the big red button to turn their chairs around and pick a contestant, they scan the studio audience to see if anyone is recoiling in horror or getting a bit flushed.

As is the way of these tightly formatted shows, once a viewer has bought into the whole thing – the journey, the tears, the family backstory, the potential for a makeover – you’re ripe to be played like a cheap violin. So on Sunday we had two contestants who livened up what was otherwise a monotonous and repetitive show.

One was Conor Quinn, who backstage with Kathryn Thomas was a nice-looking, ordinary sort of young guy but onstage morphed into Tom Waits auditioning for The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Bressie chose him and didn't flinch when his chair spun around.

The other contestant who proved that the auditions really were blind was Tara Blaise, an already successful recording artist – are they really allowed in the show? How does that work? – who has in the past worked with Corr and Kennedy.

Nobody picked her, and she had to sing for what seemed like an age to the back of the chairs. When Corr and Kennedy turned around and recognised her – so much for being expert at picking out a good voice – the squirming in the chairs and look of embarrassment on their faces were priceless.

When the live auditions (endless nights of pricey telephone voting from the public) are in full swing, in March, the BBC’s version of The Voice will have begun, and it will be interesting to compare both the talent – which on Sunday came across as very ordinary – and the judges. The Beeb has roped in some serious star wattage in the shape of Tom Jones, the Script frontman Danny O’Donoghue, the singer Jessie J and will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas. You’d press the button to have a look at them, all right.

tvreview@irishtimes.com

Get stuck into...

Putin, Russia and the West(BBC2, Thursday) In 2001 President George W Bush said that he looked Vladimir Putin in the eye and "got a sense of his soul". This four-part documentary takes a more factual look at this complex man.